FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Ron Duncan
Ron Duncan farms 222ha
(550 acres) in partnership
with his wife and eldest son
at Begrow Farms, Duffus,
Elgin, Moray. Crops include
winter wheat, spring barley,
swedes and beetroot,
alongside a pedigree
Limousin suckler herd
PEOPLE keep telling me how wonderful nature is. For the most part I would agree. But did the good Lord really intend all seeds to be sown, ewes to be lambed, and cows to be calved in just a few weeks in March and April?
Yes, things are hectic night and day at present and I love it. We are only "hashed" because of a wonderful spell of dry weather, which has finally allowed us on the land. After offers of new "rain gauges" following my last article I even saw a sandstorm to the west of us yesterday.
We are breaking all the traditional rules on our heavy land by late ploughing and breaking it down within a few days to create an excellent spring seedbed. The early ploughed stuff is slowly draining but it will be a week before we can get on it as there are lots of angry dark patches still showing. However, we dont reckon to lose yield potential in spring barley until after mid-April.
All this work may be fun but looking at the grain futures market brings me back to earth with a bump. How, even assuming everything goes right in the field, are we going to survive at these prices? I am now quite glad we failed to get much wheat sown last autumn. At least we can keep a close eye on our spring barley inputs and with wall to wall wheat in the Lothians we should have a ready malting market.
Guy Smith, Oliver Walston and others frontal attack on behalf of the arable sector has lots of support in Scotland. However, I am very conservative in such situations and feel we must use the tried and tested channels. Our unions do sterling work and I know in Scotland we have the ear of our minister. Lets get along to union meetings, or pick up the phone to the union, and make a strong, united front. *